The Cloud in 2017: Seven key trends, from AWS and Azure to voice services and machine learning

Here's a no-brainer: 2017 will be a big year for the cloud. Cloud computing is an innovation rivaling the advent of client-server, the PC or the internet, and it's going to enjoy continued vigorous growth in the new year. Though the essential balance of power within the public-cloud world won't change much, competition may favor companies that best serve the organizations straddling private data centers and the public cloud -- which is to say, most of them. Here are some of the key cloud trends to watch this year. Revenue will rise sharply for the big public-cloud providers.